Northbridge voters approve town management of Pine Grove Cemetery

Tuesday

Oct 22, 2013 at 10:36 PM

By Susan Spencer, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

NORTHBRIDGE — After 135 years of private management, Pine Grove Cemetery will become the responsibility of the town.

Voters at fall annual town meeting Tuesday voted 108-48 to acquire by donation the roughly 35-acre historic cemetery, endowed in 1878 by members of the Whitin family. The cemetery is at 241 Linwood Ave.

In a related article, voters approved by voice vote accepting the financial and other assets of the cemetery.

Articles 4 and 5, which addressed the acquisitions, were supported by the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen. The town manager, Department of Public Works director, trustees of Pine Grove Cemetery Association and Friends of Pine Grove Cemetery also supported the articles.

The votes authorize town officials to draw up transaction documents with the Pine Grove Cemetery Association trustees, which when signed will finalize the transfer.

Selectman Daniel Nolan emphasized that the articles would not increase taxes and if the town did not take charge of the cemetery, its future was uncertain.

In a PowerPoint presentation, he noted that Pine Grove Cemetery has burial capacity for approximately 100 years. The town's current sole municipal cemetery, Riverdale, is expected to be full within 20 years.

Under state law a town must provide at least one burial ground for residents within its limits. Also, a town may be petitioned to take over an abandoned cemetery, Mr. Nolan said.

According to the Pine Grove Cemetery Association, the cemetery and land are worth $351,900 and equipment is valued at $40,000 to $50,000.

The Cemetery Association also has an endowment in cash and securities valued at more than $400,000.

"We intend to run it at a break-even profit," Mr. Nolan said.

He said average income from recent years' sales was $67,000 and according to a five-year pro forma budget prepared by Town Manager Theodore Kozak, expenses would average $64,000.

Mr. Nolan said that it would be less costly for the town to manage the cemetery than the private cemetery association because of the overlap with the Department of Public Work's personnel and equipment.

Selectman James Marzec, who cast the board's sole vote opposing the article at its meeting Monday, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a wolf in sheep's clothing right now."

He said the town shouldn't rush into what he saw as a risky business decision that could wind up raising taxes.

"The trustees of Pine Grove Cemetery are asking the town to take over this property because the financial condition of the cemetery is poor at best," Mr. Marzec said. "The roads are in deplorable condition up there. If we take this over, we own it."

"It is not our role to judge the job the trustees have done, but rather to look a gift horse in the mouth and look at its teeth," Mr. D'Amato said.

Shelley Buma, who founded the Friends of Pine Grove Cemetery, said that it would cost the town less to accept the cemetery now than to take property by eminent domain when it needed more burial space.

Others questioned whether the town should focus its resources more on the needs of the living, including maintaining roadways and mowing playing fields.

Christopher Thompson, Finance Committee member, said accepting the cemetery would stretch the DPW's tight resources and would force the town to absorb a deficit.

But one of the final speakers, the Rev. Holly Johnston, who came to Rockdale Congregational Church as pastor in 1979, spoke of the people she had buried at Pine Grove and of the community.

She said, "If we truly honor this town, if we truly honor the benefits that have been provided by the Whitin family in the past… we can work together. We can build something together to make this memorial shine."